Receivers that are capable of receiving and processing an audio signal and/or visual input signal are well known in the art. Receivers are regularly used in audio, visual, and audio/visual applications such as audio/visual stereo systems, public address (PA) systems, and musical recording studios, for instance. As audio, visual, and audio/visual application have become more sophisticated, so have the receivers used in them. Receivers are now characterized as having multiple possible input signals, whether these input signals be audio, visual, or some combination thereof.
Consider, for instance, a receiver for use in home audio/visual stereo systems. Such a receiver is characterized as having many different possible input audio sources. For instance, compact disc (CD) players, stereo/surround television, stereo/surround VCRs, stereo/surround laser and digital video disc (DVD) players, stereo/surround direct satellite system (DSS) are all components of an audio/visual stereo system capable of providing audio and/or visual input signals to the receiver for processing. A surround sound system might further add to the number of audio inputs being supplied to a receiver of an audio/visual stereo system.
As the number of sources possibly supplying audio and visual input signals to a receiver increases, the difficulty of determining which input signal is to be given priority by the receiver over other input signals becomes apparent. New audio and/or visual sources create additional user interface commands to select an appropriate input signal source. Consider, for example, a home stereo system user who is watching cable TV but then decides to start a VCR movie. Currently, user intervention is required to ensure that the receiver selects the new, appropriate VCR audio input signal over the audio cable signal that it is now selected to receive. The user must start the VCR and then switch the receiver's selected audio source from cable to the VCR, either manually or by remote control.
It is known in the art that certain home stereo systems that employ cable-linked components, such as components that use the Sony S-LINK.RTM., can automatically switch the input source on the receiver when the user starts a linked device. For example, if the user presses play on a CD player in such a system this causes the receiver to switch to the CD player as the audio source. However, this approach does not work with non-cable-linked devices or with all manufacturer's device.
In light of the above discussion, there is an unmet need in the art for a receiver to be able to readily select the appropriate input source, whether it be an audio source or a visual source. It is desirable that this capability be accomplished without the requirement that input sources be cable-linked. It is further desirable that the selection of the appropriate input source be transparent to the user of the system such that no interaction from the user is required to accomplish mplish the selection and that the selection occur within a short and therefore unnoticeable period of time.